The Weight of The Entire World
by architecture of destruction
Summary: 1257 future!au: Rivaille may be a demon but he's met his match, a human that wishes for nothing more than the fall of the human race. Riren.


1257 future!au; with the government of Japan being ruled by a faceless group named the Titans. Eren Yeager, a mere high school student gains the power of a demon and leads the revolt to try to squash the men and woman ruling their towns with no care for the people—all for the price of his soul.

This was half inspired by Code Geass & C-control, I was fascinated by the idea of someone using their 'future' as a collateral, I mean, if someone offered me money and I only have to sacrifice my future in return, I would probably do it. Maybe. I don't know, I hold a lot of importance over my future.

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Chapter one:

_Disconnect_.

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**6:07 am, September 21st, 1257**

"I'm not sure what I should do," his voice is low, lower than it usually is, so it actually does catch Eren's attention, bright green eyes becoming slits as he watches Armin wring his hands into each other, voice shattering into pieces as he releases a long shaky breath.

"What do you mean?" Eren asks slowly, watching his fingers turn a dazzling bright orange as the sun's beams shoot straight through the window and paint everything in it's colours, turning pink into orange, and people into dazzling stars of colours, slowly he takes a sip of his coffee, watching Armin go completely pale on him.

There's no answer. Not even a slight clue, merely Armin playing with the string of his tea bag out of nervousness as they sit across each other in silence. If he was slightly more curious, maybe he would've reached out and grabbed his boyfriend's—are they even that anymore?—hands, telling him that everything will be okay, but it's idle things like this that irk Eren, no, not irk, annoy him. Armin's presence becoming something akin to a fly, buzzing around loudly but it's quick—something you just can't catch or get out of your house.

Armin doesn't meet his eyes as he whispers, "What do you think your future is?"

"University." He answers bluntly and quickly, because it's true, there's Daycare, Elementary, High school, University and then you work until you cannot work anymore, and then you die. That's it. There isn't such thing as a 'future' in today's society, it's nonexistent or your future is merely controlled.

The tea bag's string is swirled around the shaking finger of his boyfriend, and he watches slowly as time slows down, the string snapping from the force as Armin looks up to finally meet his eyes, his own eyes shining with tears as he laughs softly, "You see, I sold away my future."

Armin takes a slow sip, eyes casting down to look at his pale long fingers.

Eren shrugs his shoulders, eyes closing as he pulls up a fake smile, "Haven't we all?"

Armin shakes his head, twirling the tea bag around in the cup as if purposely trying to disrupt the water, "I think my future... is merely death. I will die, and that's all I will have had accomplished."

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**12:01 am, September 22nd, 1257**

Armin broke up with him 4 hours ago, precisely after they fought for 5 hours about Eren cheating on him with Mikasa and Armin cheating on him with Jean, it was a messy fight, Armin throwing pretty much everything, like sponges, scalding tea, and half-eaten alcoholic chocolates, and maybe he might've tried that wine bottle on the coffee table if Eren hadn't tried to punch him in the face after the scalding tea.

Mikasa had sent him 8 messages apologizing, and Jean had tried calling him 4 times with one apologetic text.

Armin didn't text him, and Eren didn't try to contact him, either.

It's a mystery to himself why he's still upset—this is what he wanted to happen when he went ahead and pulled off Mikasa's shirt, kissing her and holding her hips with shaking hands. This is what he wanted. He wanted Armin to find out, that's why they did it an hour before Armin would return, naked and laying in the bed Armin and Eren had shared so many times before.

He brought this upon himself.

He however was expecting only to be hurting Armin, not to figure out that in their romantic-less dating that Armin's been cheating on him since day 3. Whilst he thought he was the only one hurting the other, the truth is, he was the more loyal one.

The relationship he was sticking too out of duty because of their 12 year-long friendship, 2 years of dating a man he doesn't even love. Eren doesn't even like men—it was out of pity, out of duty that he accepted.

Maybe that was his flaw, he should've said 'No', he should've done anything that would've prevented this, he was the one that backed Armin into a corner. Armin surely knew he didn't like him, and doesn't love him, from the lack of kisses—certainly one can count on one hand how many times Eren kissed Armin in a span of two years—he's the one in fault.

Out of guilt does he call his used-to-be-best-friend, dialing up the number he hasn't called since they've become an item, Armin—as expected, doesn't picked up, so he leaves a short message, something to convey his messed up feelings and his guilt for putting his friend through downs and highs, for dragging Armin through the dirt when he could've just said "I'm sorry... I don't see you that way" from the beginning, that would've been easier.

"I'm sorry," he says into voice mail, head leaning against the side of his sofa as he crumples to his knee's, "I'm stupid—thinking you wouldn't realize that... that I just... I'm sorry, Armin. I've been a terrible friend."

Armin will know what he's talking about, he always has.

They will never be friends again, he knows, and even if they do become friends again, it will be a shaky relationship built on top of pointless lies.

In a panic he calls 8 more times, then he calls Jean, who doesn't pick up, and then Mikasa who picks up crying—

There's no call back, and Eren tries really, really, hard not to wallow in guilt as he drowns a glass of beer, head thrown over the back of the couch as he falls asleep with his phone grasped in his hand.

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Insistent knocking is what he wakes up too, a bottle of vodka in one hand and his phone still clutched in the other.

"Open up, Eren Jaeger!" The voices holler loudly, continuing a loud string of knocking before it goes silent, and he manages to roll off of the couch and onto his knee's on the floor before he screams back,

"I'm coming! Fuck! Calm down!" Hand on his head, because his hangover hurts like a bitch, he manages to get up, placing the bottle onto the coffee table beside his other alcoholic beverages he managed to drown himself in last night, when he throws open the door, his blood runs cold.

"Are you Eren Jaeger?" A police—his mind reels, turning into ugly black swirls as he tries to flatter backwards and cower away as the cop standing in front of his door holds out his badge, eyes blank and mouth pulled into a mournful frown. "I'm Reiner from the downtown police unit, could we have a few minutes of your co-operation?"

"Yeah... Uh, sure... Come in."

Reiner isn't the only person that enters, and Eren's mind is scrambling to pick up the pieces because the police unit shouldn't be at his doorstep nor does he want them to be here, the police are notoriously known for being the governments pawns—pawns of the government he hates. There's a small blonde girl and a tall brunet, abnormally tall, all three of them with their hands in their pockets as they look around the room for something.

His stomach sinks, looking over the mass amount of alcohol in shame. "Oh... Sorry, had a big fight with someone yesterday..."

"Yes. You saw with Armin Arlet yesterday, correct?" Reiner asks stoically, sitting himself down on the couch comfortably before signalling for Eren to sit down in front of him, carefully, he does, unsure why everything is turning out like this.

He checks his phone quickly, 1:09pm... and still no calls or texts from Armin or Jean.

"You might want to sit down for this news, Sir."

"What... What's going on?" His voice cracks, and his stomach sinks into a pit of despair as he tries to make the connections and it doesn't necessarily take a genius. Things like this never have. The police are at his house after he fought with Armin, they're asking about Armin and— "Where's Armin? Is he okay?"

The blond police looks away, shaking his head and sighing out loudly, "Yesterday, Armin Arlet was found dead in his bedroom, we presume it was murder, but it may have been suicide."

"Excuse me?"

_("You see, I sold away my future.") _

He scrambles with his phone, dialing up Armin's number almost immediately with shaking hands the phone is pressed against his ear, giving the police officers a nasty look, "Don't make jokes like that, I just saw him last night. He's not dead."

His eyes close, and he tries willing himself not to cry as it continues to call, and soon not after—the short message Armin left, "Hey this is Armin Arlet, I can't come to the phone right now so leave your name and number and I'll get back to you soon."

"Armin—Call me soon, some police came over telling me you're dead and... You aren't dead, right?" A bitter laughter follows, tears refusing to stay trapped as they fall, "Right? You wouldn't go and die and make me feel like an asshole forever?" The time for a message long ago ended, but he isn't done, things can't just end like this, "I know I shouldn't have—but, where are you? Just call me, you don't even need to say anything. Please, Armin I—"

"Sir," the female officer says blandly, arms behind her back as she refuses to meet his eyes, "We need to ask you a few questions."

_"He isn't dead."_

("What do you think your future is?")

"Had he been acting strange lately? Said anything at all?" The tallest police officer asks this time, holding out a cup of water with a bright smile, "I'm sorry I helped myself to your kitchen, but I think you should drink some water right now."

"Strange?" Eren repeats blankly, body going rigid, as he stumbles onto a chair, "He kept talking about his future and how there isn't a future for him, anymore, he kept saying he sold it away."

_("I will die.") _

Die?

That's not true—he wants to yell out, looking at the pitying faces of the strangers surrounding him, there's still University and then working until you can't, crying until you laugh, marriage, children, there's still so much more.

But there's nothing after death.

"I see." The blonde says with a small nod, "That's all. Please call us here if you need to talk to anybody, we will come and give you the case files when we figure out what happened, please take care."

He pauses, watching the brunet and the small blonde girl disappear, it takes him a moment, staring at Reiner for a long moment before he says slowly, almost hesitantly, "Don't... Don't I know you from somewhere?"

("Eren, this is Reiner, he's come from Germany and he'll be staying with me, transfer student, you know." Armin had smiled, holding a hand to Reiner's chest, Eren had spared a brief glance, looking up at the tall blond male with narrowed eyes before he continued his thesis.

"Oh, is he paying you rent?"

"Yup," Armin smiled. So fake. Fake, fake, fake and pleading—Eren can remember staring at Armin for a long moment, confused on why his boyfriend's eyes looked so dead.)

Reiner merely shakes his head, "I haven't met you before, I'm sorry." He says curtly before leaving Eren alone to the dark room.

_("Eren, this is Reiner.")_

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**12:00 am, January 1st, 1255**

"We are taking control of this country." A tall man with a long brown beard and sharp brown eyes stood on the tallest building in Japan with a loud speaker, pose straight as a large group of people behind him stood, and then in perfect sync they bashed their fists against their chests, saluting the old man with chorused loyalty.

Cries of outrage and laughs of disbelief followed.

Eren had been sitting with Armin, the small blond whispering his confession as the brunet stared with wide frightened eyes as groups of people came flooding into the city with uniforms baring wings, slowly, he watched blood be splattered across the ground, people screaming as Armin reached out to grab his face.

It was a bitter first kiss full of fear.

"Eren, I love you."

"Armin," Eren had whispered, grabbing his long-term best friend's wrist and dragging the blond to his feet, "Let's run."

His eyes were still trained on the dying hoards of people and the soldiers dressed up in military outfits, screaming their loyalties to the new "King of the Universe" as they slaughtered innocent woman, children, innocent people.

Armin finally had looked, covering his mouth with his hands to muffle his cry of disbelief.

After the death of 563 civilians and the entire death of any government officials, Japan was taken over by a man whom called himself The Monkey Man.

The story goes that his entire army itself was formed from demons from Hell, and that they all are battling to be the first one to get this one man's soul.

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**7:45 am, September 23rd, 2057**

"What are you staring at?" A short male asks him, right behind him, and it surprised Eren because he hadn't even heard the footsteps, nor does he hear the man behind him breathing—the insistent chirping of the birds that had been going at it ever since he had woken up, suddenly silent, the world suddenly darker.

"Graves." Eren says curtly, dead eyes staring at the tombstones in morbid fascination, maybe because soon, in 4 days exactly from now, this is where Armin will be buried. A dead body with their soul all the way to wherever souls go, because Eren has never believed in Heaven and God.

He's starting to think he doesn't believe in anything anymore, actually.

"So someone close to you died." The stranger practically purrs, sounding absolutely delighted by that news and Eren usually would've twirled around and punched the guy straight in the face, which he actually does try, but surprised by the figure of the human had vanished.

"Right here." The stranger says from behind him, and he tries again, twirling around and satisfied with himself when his fist meet's the guys face. But that's all, there's not crunch of the bones under his knuckles, if he's being completely honest, there's nothing. Slowly, the man smirks, figure burning into a black smoke as a wicked roe of shiny sharp teeth express themselves. "How about we make a deal?"

"A deal?"

"Yes, I grant you a wish, any wish," the stranger says, face impassive but eyes sparkling, "And in return you give me something."

"What do I give you?" His voice is suspicious, but dead, because really what does he have to lose anymore? His country is ran by a bunch of lunatics that kill people for show, and his best friend just possibly committed suicide because he's an asshole. A giant fucking asshole.

There's a small breeze of air in the seemingly stopped time, birds slowly beginning to chirp again, as the stranger fades into black smoke.

"Your future." He says, and disappears. "In four days from now, I will come to you, completing the contract. Find what you want."

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**2:03 pm, September 24th, 2057**

Eren and Jean are friends, maybe not the best of friends—but they are friends. Maybe they became friends before Armin and Eren started dating, or maybe they never really were friends. Eren isn't exactly sure anymore.

"If you had one wish, what would it be? " Eren finds himself asking, eyes refusing to watch Jean waste away his life with cigarettes and booze.

There's a small 'woosh' sound from the bottle of vodka being moved from the ground to Jean's lips, before he takes a swig, he answers, "Maybe that no one close to me would die until I die, or something selfish like that."

And the answer is so very Jean-like, Eren thinks, picking the petals off of the four leaf clovers surrounding them, except none of them are the lucky ones with four leafs, merely small little ones with three leafs. He never really understood why people call them lucky clovers, why are they lucky? Why are the mutants lucky?

"I think I'd wish for something bigger."

Jean laughs, "You'd probably wish for something crazy like 'I want to destroy each and every Titan', or something."

His eyes snap up, looking at Jean with wide amazed eyes—and he finds himself tearing an entire clover out with the moment, dead eyes springing to life as he stands up, crumpling the clover into his fist, "Yeah, that's a good idea."

"Don't be stupid, wishes don't come true," Jean murmurs softly, swirling the contents of the bottle around slowly, eyes slowly becoming heavier as his shoulders slump forward, "I mean, if wishes could come true Marco and Armin wouldn't have died, they'd still be here."

"Everyone has to die."

"Not they, they shouldn't have died." Jean says gravely, a bitter laugh following as he places his head back, eyes gazing upon the bright sunny sky, "I mean someone just died two days ago and it's sunny, kids are still playing in the playground and people are still going shopping and continuing their days. The world doesn't care, someone dies, but you learn to move on."

"What were you expecting?"

"The world to be gray. You know in movies everything goes bleak when someone dies, but actually, the world continues, there's no stopping there's no pause button, you just forget about that person and continue in life."

"Jean," Eren whispers crouching down in front of his friend, "I will find out what actually happened to Armin. I swear, I will uncover the truth."

_("Eren, this is Reiner.")_

_("You see, I sold away my future.")_

Slowly he opens his fist, green eyes staring in disbelief as a small four-leafed clover uncovers itself.

_("Your future.")_

"But you know, I think... I think I have a wish now." Eren says softly, placing the small plant into the palm of Jean's hand before smiling widely, "I think I've found out what I'd sell away my future for."

"You sound just like Armin," Jean says dully, clutching the leaf roughly, "He kept apologizing and saying that he sold away his future to uncover the truth."

"The truth?"

"Yeah."

"I wonder what Armin would sell his future away to know..."

Jean merely laughs, "He's always been way too nosy. Don't you know? Curiosity killed the cat."

"But satisfaction brought it back, Jean." Eren manages to stand up, gazing upon his friend and realizing for the first time how thin Jean has gotten in a mere two days, the bags underneath his eyes black and his entire being just screams dead—finished, this is the end for me.

Jean doesn't bother to even look up, thumb running around the opening of the bottle as he shakes his head slowly, "There's no such thing as being brought back, Eren."

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The stranger from the park is waiting inside of the living room when he gets home, hair soaked as he tries to find the nearest towel or blanket so he doesn't get his entire floor soaked before he manages to get to the bathroom.

It's numbness that keeps him from reacting very much.

"I see you've found out what you want." He drawls, a long silver chain being twirled around his middle finger as he gazes away from Eren, back still kept to the human as he chuckles lowly, "So, what do you wish for?"

"You'll grant any wish, correct?"

"Correct."

"How and why?" Eren screeches this time, his cool dissolving into hate and confusion, emotions he had thought he had buried away long ago when he turned numb. When he stopped being human.

The stranger standing in front of him eye him silently, long nails painted black slowly touching the mirrors surrounding them, and Eren finally realizes, that they're not in his living room any more. Only black and the blank other-wordly look of this man.

"I am a demon." He says monotonously, sharp silver eyes looking away from him as he pokes the mirror gently, merely the tip of his nail grazing it, it shattering underneath the weak touch. He sighs, looking away from Eren. "I do not wish for the Monkey Man's soul, therefore I am making a contract with someone else."

"A contract?"

"Enough," the demon hisses, twirling around and suddenly standing in front of Eren, an unimpressed frown marring his lips as he grips the front of Eren's blazer, "What is it you desire? Money, wealth, fame? Whatever you wish, I will grant you it, and when you have acquired all you need, I will devour your soul."

"How do I know you won't eat my soul the moment you feel like it?" Eren murmurs, looking to the mirror behind them, disorienting their figures, making his eyes look larger and uneven—_like a monster_, he thinks.

"Because of the contract. Unlike filthy humans, demons do not lie."

"Fine." Eren hisses, hanging his head back and closing his eyes, "I desire that you help me overthrow the Monkey Man," there's a pause, "That's what I want."

The demon chuckles, "Of course you'd choose something practically impossible."

"You said anything!"

The demon let's go of his shirt, a haughty smirk on his face as he drawls his nails along the side of Eren's face, "Where do you want the seal? It will be visible, and the closer to the eye the stronger the contract."

"The eye," Eren says strongly.


End file.
